This application claims the priority of Korean Patent Application No. 2003-70279 filed on Oct. 9, 2003, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma display apparatus, and more particularly, to a plasma display apparatus with a structure that facilitates heat dissipation from a circuit device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A plasma display apparatus is a flat panel display device that displays pictures by using a gas discharge effect. Because of its very good performance and characteristics such as high display capacity, high brightness, high contrast, clear latent image, and large viewing angle, the plasma display apparatus is considered to be a next generation display device to replace the is CRT.
A plasma display apparatus includes a plasma display panel on which an image is displayed, a chassis base facing the plasma display panel, and a circuit section for driving the panel which is located on the back of the chassis base. A cabinet of the plasma display apparatus houses the plasma display panel and the chassis base.
The plasma display panel includes a first and a second substrate, separated by a gap and facing each other to form a discharge space. A plurality of pairs of discharge sustain electrodes is formed on the first substrate, a plurality of address electrodes is formed on the second substrate, and barrier ribs that are interposed between the substrates separate the discharge space into a plurality of discharge cells.
Such a plasma display apparatus can display an image by selectively discharging various discharge cells, thereby enabling a color display. For this purpose, a driving device connected to the address electrodes provides sequentially controlled signals to the address electrodes.
However, the driving device generates much heat. Therefore, if the heat generated by the driving device is not properly dissipated, proper operation of the plasma display apparatus cannot be achieved.
As the size of the discharge cells decreases, the driving device becomes denser. Therefore, better heat dissipation from the circuit device is required.
According to a technique for improving the heat dissipation of the driving device disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open publication 2000-268735, a conductive pattern is formed on a glass substrate and the driving device is mounted on the conductive pattern, and the is conductive pattern and a chassis base are connected by a metal clip. According to the disclosed technique, heat generated by the driving device is transferred to the chassis base via the conductive pattern.
Generally, the chassis base performs as a heat sink that dissipates heat from the plasma display panel and the circuit section, and thus the heat gathers in the chassis base. The heat gathered in the chassis base is transferred to inside air by convection in a closed space. However, due to a low heat transfer rate, much heat accumulates in the chassis base, which is maintained at a high temperature.
Therefore, according to the conventional art, because the heat generated by the driving device is not effectively dissipated, a malfunction may occur due to a degradation of a device or, in a severe case, the normal operation of the plasma display apparatus may be disturbed by thermal destruction caused by thermal stress.
Also, when the heat generated by the driving device is transferred to the chassis base, there are some harmful effects to the plasma display panel and other circuit sections, the heat of which is dissipated through the chassis base.